Former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick sat down with Chaoszine and during the chat, he revealed he was hurt by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s actions. Kulick named the original KISS members and the late manager and added that although he got why the band stuck with avatars, he was upset that they overlooked the people who were a big part of the band:
“I know they really respect everyone I just mentioned — it’s not that they don’t — but the fact that they didn’t understand that that’s what you’re celebrating along with, ‘Wow, this current band made it through all this. And look at us with the multimillion-dollar show. And now we’re going to show you the avatar.’ I think that that was a big part of them dropping the ball in looking at the past. I applaud them in thinking broad and big and future. Okay. Fine. I knew that they would never want to find, ‘Let’s start a TV show, find the best Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons.’ I knew they wouldn’t do that because there’s something, like, ‘Ewww’ — for them to be a part of that or judge that, it would be very awkward, but to take them and then make them avatars, it totally made sense to me that they did it.”
He added that it hurt him that they stuck to the digitalized versions of themselves:
“It was an extra ‘ouch’ for me when all of a sudden I saw some videos the next day of how they [ended the concert]. I mean, they said, ‘Good night. We are immortal.’ And then, all of a sudden, a lot of smoke and you don’t see anything. And then the screen opens. But what do you hear first? My guitar playing ‘God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You.’ My big appearance. But ‘God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll’ was their choice, was the right song. I’m sure that was chosen probably in collaboration with the people who are helping make [the avatars]. So it wasn’t, like, ‘Oh, let’s do ‘Shout It Out Loud’.’ And especially that’s a song that they don’t generally do much; they’ve done it on occasions. So there you go. I’m a part of it. All the guitar parts are there, and I was, like, ‘Whoa, this is really weird.’”
The Final Show Didn’t Have Enough ‘Kisstory’
Kulick previously talked about not being part of KISS’s last show in January during an interview with Artists On Record Starring ADIKA Live! He mentioned how the way the final KISS show was done was quite different from how Stanley and Simmons handled the band’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction back in 2014. Bruce also noted that KISS fans ‘expected more of Kisstory’ at the band’s final Madison Square Garden gig:
“That did not happen. And sadly, I really feel that it was a missed opportunity by the band. But that was their choice. They’re this machine that was out there doing the ‘End Of The Road’ tour. The last night was a big, big setup for their future. But the missed opportunity was not honoring and respecting Kisstory. And all I would have hoped for — and I’m hearing this from fans; this isn’t, ‘Oh, Bruce was in the band for 12 years.’ This is from fans.”
Similar to the recent interview, he shared his disappointment in the members not giving a shoutout to their former members:
“Why they couldn’t say or show a video montage featuring all those great eras of the band. How do you do an event like that and not mention Eric Carr or represent him? How do you not mention Ace and Peter? That’s even bigger.”
You can watch the recent interview below.